Out pick me starts today

Fat Guy Corner

Jeff Day — Sports Columnist

Hurry and enter the Out-Pick the Fat Guy contest. It all gets started Thursday night with the opening game of the NFL season between the Atlanta Falcons and the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. The winner with the best overall record will win a $100 gift certificate to Louie’s Sports Tavern. Anyone who finishes ahead of me goes into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to Louie’s Sports Tavern. There you go, football fans, for a little excitement and entertainment.

Here is how you sign up: Go to the ESPN web site and click fantasy and then hit Pro Pick’em and the group name is viewnewspapers. It’s that simple! I see there are about 30 people already signed up! If you miss the Thursday game you can still play the rest of the games for the week and it’s only one game you will miss out on! Sign up now and try to out-match my tremendous handicapping skills. It’s free, so why not play? I have the crystal cheeseball plugged in while I am banging on this keyboard and it will be red hot out of the gates!

Almost is not good enough

The college football season for Michigan State was almost a disaster, but the Spartans emerged victorious. The Utah State football team almost pulled off the upset, but almost is not good enough. The Spartans won the game, 38-31.

The Spartans will go out West to take on the Arizona State Sun Devils and new head coach Herm “You Play To Win The Game” Edwards. The kickoff is set for 10:45 p.m. Saturday night and it will be on ESPN. I look for the Spartans to win this football game because of their tough defense. The Fat Guy says MSU 29 and Devils 17. Let’s Sparty and enjoy the long flight home party.

Lots of questions for Wolverines

The fate of Michigan was much different at Notre Dame on Saturday night. The Irish pulled off a 24-17 victory and left Michigan fans wondering about their coach and football team once again. The Michigan offense was again brutal, as it has been under coach Jim “Not The Savior” Harbaugh. The offense didn’t score a touchdown until the game was 58 minutes old. They could not run the football and the play calling was straight out of a Lucky Charms cereal box. I mean Shea Patterson completed one long pass and that was it! News flash, Jimmy, you score when you throw the ball down the field and Shea is capable of accomplishing this feat! Throw the darn ball down the field for Cripe’s sake! If you don’t want to, then run the wing-T offense, or the wishbone! After the first two drives, the defense settled in and played decent football. The defense will be alright the rest of the season.

The Notre Dame quarterback, Wimbush, played really well for the Irish, so give him his props! The Michigan Wolverines will take on a MAC school we all know in the Western Michigan Broncos. Hold on to your hat if the Wolverines sputter and lose this home game to Western Michigan. That’s a strong possibility if Michigan stinks offensively again this week; trust me on that! The crystal ball says Harbaughs 1940’s playbook 38 and the Brown and yellow 16.

Not much faith in the Lions

The Lions will open up on Monday night football against the New York Jets minus Joe Namath. The game will be the first of two Monday night games so the kickoff is set for 7:10 p.m. on ESPN. The second game will be the L.A. Rams and the Oakland Raiders at 10:15 p.m. The return of Jon Gruden to the sidelines for the Raiders at $100 million for 10 years! Wow!

Okay, back to the felines in the Motor City and what to expect on Monday Night. If any of you Lions fans know what to expect, you’re smarter than I am (that doesn’t take much either)! The Lions looked horrendous in the preseason and that is being kind; really kind, actually!

The Jets are not a good team and will start rookie quarterback, Sam Darnold. The prediction is a Lions victory on Monday night! The Meows 24 and Grounded Plane 17.